Should All ISPs Provide Data on Network Activity?

Washington-based interest group Free Press asked the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday to require all broadband service providers to be transparent about their network activities.

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Is your Internet service provider interfering with your Web experience?

Washington-based interest group Free Press believes you have the right to know, and asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday to require all broadband service providers to be transparent about their network activities.

The commission needs to craft a rule "requiring all broadband service providers to disclose in detail any networking activities that monitor or interfere with any level of communications by end users to access or share unlawful content and applications on the Internet," according a filing submitted to the FCC by Free Press' Ben Scott, policy director, and Chris Riley, policy counsel.

Free Press has some experience battling ISPs over network management. The group filed a complaint with the FCC last year after Comcast was accused of blocking access to file-sharing Web sites like BitTorrent. That resulted in an enforcement action against the cable company that required it to be more open about its policies.

Though Comcast appealed the FCC decision, it has since provided in-depth details on upcoming changes to its network management policies, and imposed a 250GB cap on bandwidth consumption for its residential customers, which started October 1.

Nonetheless, Free Press wants the FCC to require all providers to hand over data about network management practices, including any and all limits imposed on their networks, exact thresholds for network slow-downs, and when and how these limits are likely to occur.

Providers should also tell the FCC: why they are monitoring certain things; the type and nature of data collected; how that data is stored; and who has access to that data.

"Disclosure must be technology-neutral and industry-wide, as this transparency is needed to ensure competition among different platforms without giving any platform an unfair advantage," Free Press wrote. "Transparency problems and potentially discriminatory network interference are present in DSL, cable, and wireless industries."

"Comcast's disclosure of its 'future practices' demonstrated that network providers can disclose meaningful, reasonably precise details to consumers about their network controls, without needing to maintain confidentiality over the disclosed information," Scott and Riley wrote.

"AT&T has shown that all providers can make a greater effort to inform their consumers as to the realistic speeds of service," according to the filing.

Comcast's and Verizon's terms of service did take a hit, however.

"In June of 2007, Verizon's terms of service reserved the right to permanently change, limit, or terminate any subscriber's service without notice, while Comcast's terms asserted the right to change a user's upstream or downstream bandwidth limitations without notice, and to monitor the user's usage and content," the group wrote. "ISP terms of service, the primary method of disclosure of network interference to consumers and to the Commission, are too vague to provide useful information to consumers."

"We don't interfere, that's why there are no details provided," according to a Verizon spokesman.

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Free Press also slams NebuAd, an online advertising company that aggregates information to serve up targeted ads. After an intense summer of congressional scrutiny, NebuAd lost its chairman and chief executive and put its online projects on hold, but "because of a lack of disclosure, consumers cannot know whether this type of activity has ceased," according to Free Press.

When issuing its Comcast decision, the FCC said that it would evaluate network management complaints on a case-by-case basis because of the changing Internet landscape.

Free Press disagrees with this approach because: rules requiring disclosure are not novel or dynamic; disclosure rules apply equally to all types, and do not in any way constrain the development of new and complex networks; and disclosure rules do not hinder a competitive market, according to the filing.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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